Linux filenames

[willbert]

I did a strange thing today.

mv myfile.zip mydir#

Notice the hash symbol after my directory name. It hasn't created a directory, however I can view the contents of the zip file within the 'non directory' by using midnight commander.

I cant find an explaination(googling) of what the hash does within a linux filename.

Im using Bash. Can anyone help?

[vsemaska]

The hash symbol (or pound sign) has no special meaning in Linux filenames. It's just another character that can be used in filenames like the dash (-) or underscore (_).

[willbert]

when I try to cd to the directory I get an error...

bash: cd: mydir#: Not a directory

I can only open the directory in midnight commander. Why does it have this affect if it has no special meaning within a filename?

[MikeTbob]

You basically just renamed myfile.zip to mydir# it never was or is a directory. It's still the same data, you just renamed it. If you want to change it back: mv mydir# myfile.zip
If you can open it in a file browser, I think what you are seeing is the actual zip files.

[willbert]

Lol!

Now I see!! I spent a good hour googling that Now I can get on with what I was actually doing!

Cheers!

[i92guboj]

To be more concrete, '#' might or might not have an special meaning.

It has nothing to do with this issue, which was purely a confussion. But under some circumstances this character has a special meaning in bash.

In a non-interactive shell, or an interactive shell in which the interac‐
tive_comments option to the shopt builtin is enabled (see SHELL BUILTIN COM‐
MANDS below), a word beginning with # causes that word and all remaining
characters on that line to be ignored. An interactive shell without the
interactive_comments option enabled does not allow comments. The interac‐
tive_comments option is on by default in interactive shells.